If the International Olympic Committee thought foreign journalists wouldn’t notice China’s crackdown on dissent, the IOC thought wrong. Exhibit A: This press conference held Thursday at the Main Press Center in Beijing. The IOC and Chinese organizers refused to answer a litany of questions on human rights, harassment of foreign journalists, the refusal of Beijing [...]

Congressmen Allyson Schwartz (D, Pa.) and Bill Shuster (R, Pa.) announced Thursday their intention to issue a resolution urging the International Olympic Committee to strip Russia of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. The Congressmen point to Russia’s “contravention of international law, the United Nations Charter, the principles of the Olympic Charter,” among other things. But [...]

Chinese Internet censorship has been a hot topic this Olympics season. After outrage erupted, Chinese authorities lifted some of the restrictions on Web sites at the main press center for the games. But Chinese Internet expert Xiao Qiang says there’s still a long way to go. He writes to us: “Many visiting foreign journalists have [...]

Yale’s Chen Zhiwu is less-than-impressed with NBC analyst Joshua Ramo’s “Beijing Consensus,” which lauds the Chinese development model. Lauding this model is of course good business for Mr. Ramo and his colleagues at Kissinger and Associates, as our Hugo Restall pointed out this week and Harper’s reported. Dr. Chen, a finance professor at the Yale [...]

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has taken an active and highly visible role in the country’s Olympic programs, with so far disastrous results. In July, he had to scrap the original building plans for Olympic venues as his country prepares to host the 2014 winter games in Sochi. Seems that blueprints called for events right [...]

Don’t miss Rebecca MacKinnon’s piece on Opinion Journal. The University of Hong Kong professor describes how the Chinese government’s control of the Internet goes way beyond blocking foreign news sites.

Italian double-trap-shooting silver medalist Francesco D’Aniello has but one request for his countrymen: He wants to keep the full value of the cash prize he’ll receive from the Italian government in acknowledgment of his achievement by exempting him from taxes on it. “‘We athletes go through major sacrifices to get to this level. It would [...]

Okay, maybe we’re exaggerating. But only a little bit. The latest installment of China’s Olympic scandal erupted Wednesday, as questions intensified about the age of Chinese’s gold-medal winning gymnastic team. Three members of the six-girl team–He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin–all claim that they are 16 years old, the minimum required to be eligible [...]

Beijing’s Olympics organizers claim the Games are a sold-out affair. I believe them: When I started looking for tickets to an Olympics event–any Olympics event–in mid-July, the only ones available were for softball and Hong Kong’s equestrian events. Source: Leslie Hook But set foot inside Olympics venues, and it’s a different story. Row after row [...]